By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

CARROLLTON – The Troup Lady Tigers eased past Newnan 48-41 on Saturday in their final game in the Carrollton Christmas Classic.

The Lady Tigers opened the season with three straight losses, but they’ve won six of their past seven games to improve to 6-4.

Troup visits Callaway on Friday before opening its Region 5-AAAA schedule next week at Chapel Hill.

Troup lost to Harrison 57-50 in its opening game in the Carrollton tournament before bouncing back for wins over Griffin and Newnan.

In the Newnan game, Amber Gilbert delivered an outstanding performance with 29 points, and she was 14-of-16 from the free-throw line.

Freshman Aniya Palmer added 11 points, and she and Gilbert combined for 20 points in the fourth quarter.

The Lady Tigers struggled to get things going early, and they trailed 20-13 at the half.

The second half belonged to Troup, which outscored Newnan 35-21 to win going away.

“We started off real sluggish,” Troup head coach Carla Thornton said. “We talked about it at halftime, talked about how we had to play with more intensity and more of a sense of urgency. You’ve got to play to win. Everybody’s tired at this point, so it comes down to how bad do you want it. Do you want to win, or do you not want to win? I think we played more to win in the second half, rather than just playing to play like we did in the first half.”

Gilbert did a lot of the damage in the second half with 24 points, including 15 point in the fourth quarter.

Gilbert was 8-of-9 from the free-throw line in the final quarter.

“That’s something we’ve been leading toward lately, letting (Gilbert) kind of close out games for us, put the ball in her hands, and let her teammates feed off of her,” Thornton said. “She lives for those moments. She can handle the pressure. She got her other teammates involved, as well as herself.”